Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Principles and Techniques

EMPATHIAN A Continuing Education Program for Licensed Mental Health Clinicians

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Principles and Techniques

A Seven-Session Continuing Education Course for Licensed Clinicians

Course Director: Robert E. Feinstein, MD

Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Northwell/Zucker/Hofstra School of Medicine

6.5 CE Credits | Live Online | Intermediate Level

Man in therapy session gesturing to therapist

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Principles and Techniques is among the oldest and most extensively studied approaches in the field — and among the most persistently misunderstood. It is not a relic of Freudian determinism or an artifact of the pre-evidence-based era. It is a living clinical tradition, continuously revised by decades of attachment research, neuroscience, and outcome data, that offers something no protocol-driven treatment fully replaces: a disciplined account of the interior life of the patient, the relational processes that shape suffering, and the therapeutic relationship as an instrument of change.

This seven-session course provides licensed mental health clinicians with a working foundation in contemporary psychodynamic psychotherapy — not as intellectual history, but as a clinical discipline they can begin applying immediately. The course moves systematically from core theory through technique, with dedicated sessions for participant case presentations that bring the concepts into direct contact with real clinical material.

The theoretical arc spans five major psychodynamic traditions — Freudian/ego psychology, object relations, self psychology, mentalization-based therapy, and relational psychoanalysis — treated not as competing orthodoxies but as complementary lenses that have each contributed essential clinical tools. The technical arc moves from foundational listening skills through the sophisticated use of transference, countertransference, and interpretation as therapeutic instruments.

Two sessions are structured around participant case presentations. These are not optional add-ons. They are the clinical laboratory of the course — the place where abstract formulations meet actual patients, where theoretical vocabulary is tested against the messy reality of clinical work, and where peer feedback becomes part of the learning. Presenters and discussants alike are expected to engage actively. The cases are the curriculum.

The course is designed for clinicians who are already seeing patients and who want to think more precisely about what they are doing and why it is — or is not — working. Prior psychodynamic training is not required. What is required is a willingness to slow down, look more carefully at the clinical encounter, and take seriously the idea that what happens between two people in a consulting room is complex, meaningful, and amenable to disciplined study.

What Makes Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Principles and Techniques Distinct

Among the evidence-based psychotherapies, psychodynamic approaches are distinguished by a specific set of clinical commitments: sustained attention to unconscious processes and their influence on present experience; close examination of emotion rather than cognitive reframing of it; careful use of the therapeutic relationship itself — including transference and countertransference — as primary data; attention to recurring relational patterns across contexts; and a developmental framework that takes seriously how early experience shapes current functioning. Shedler (2010) identified these as the defining features of a treatment with robust outcome evidence, particularly for complex presentations, personality pathology, and patients for whom symptom-focused treatments have plateaued.

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

Define the foundational concepts of psychodynamic theory — including the unconscious, psychic determinism, defense, and the developmental lens — and explain their clinical relevance to formulation and treatment
Compare and contrast the five major psychodynamic theoretical traditions and identify their distinct contributions to clinical technique
Recognize, name, and work clinically with common defense mechanisms, understanding resistance as meaningful communication rather than opposition
Apply Bordin's tripartite model of the therapeutic alliance and demonstrate strategies for building, maintaining, and repairing it
Distinguish classical from relational definitions of transference and countertransference and use both as therapeutic instruments
Differentiate the levels of psychodynamic intervention — clarification, confrontation, and interpretation — and identify appropriate clinical indications for each
Construct a basic psychodynamic case formulation integrating presenting problems, developmental history, dominant defenses, and core relational patterns
Apply psychodynamic concepts to their own clinical material through structured case presentation and peer consultation

Define the foundational concepts of psychodynamic theory — including the unconscious, psychic determinism, defense, and the developmental lens — and explain their clinical relevance to formulation and treatment.
Compare and contrast the five major psychodynamic theoretical traditions and identify their distinct contributions to clinical technique.
Recognize, name, and work clinically with common defense mechanisms, understanding resistance as meaningful communication rather than opposition.
Apply Bordin's tripartite model of the therapeutic alliance and demonstrate strategies for building, maintaining, and repairing it.

Distinguish classical from relational definitions of transference and countertransference and use both as therapeutic instruments.
Differentiate the levels of psychodynamic intervention — clarification, confrontation, and interpretation — and identify appropriate clinical indications for each.
Construct a basic psychodynamic case formulation integrating presenting problems, developmental history, dominant defenses, and core relational patterns.
Apply psychodynamic concepts to their own clinical material through structured case presentation and peer consultation.

Time	Session
8:00 – 8:15	Introduction & Program Overview (15 min)
8:15 – 9:15	Session 1: Foundations: The Psychodynamic Frame (60 min)
9:15 – 10:45	Session 2: Psychodynamic Theoretical Models (90 min)
10:45 – 11:00	Break (15 min)
11:00 – 12:00	Session 3: Alliance, Defenses & Resistance (60 min)
12:00 – 1:00	Lunch (60 min)
1:00 – 2:00	Session 4: Participant Case Presentation I (60 min)
2:00 – 3:00	Session 5: Transference & Countertransference (60 min)
3:00 – 3:15	Break (15 min)
3:15 – 4:15	Session 6: Technique: Listening, Interpreting & Working Through (60 min)
4:15 – 5:15	Session 7: Participant Case Presentation II (60 min)

This is a seven-session, live online CE course (7.25 credits, intermediate level) totaling roughly 7 hours of instruction, delivered synchronously with a morning start at 8:00 AM plus scheduled breaks. Five sessions (60–90 minutes each) follow a didactic-plus-discussion format, moving from foundational theory through the five major psychodynamic traditions, defenses/resistance/alliance, transference/countertransference, and technique — each grounded in clinical vignettes rather than pure lecture. The remaining two sessions are participant-led case presentations (45 and 60 minutes): a presenter gives a structured case summary, followed by faculty-facilitated group discussion and presenter reflection, using a standardized case presentation template. CE credit requires completion of a post-course evaluation.

Licensed mental health clinicians: psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, counselors, marriage and family therapists
Clinicians with at least one year of post-licensure clinical experience
No prior psychodynamic training required; familiarity with basic psychological concepts assumed

This course is appropriate for clinicians across theoretical orientations who want to deepen their understanding of unconscious processes, relational dynamics, and the use of the therapeutic relationship. It is not designed for pre-licensure trainees.

Continuing Education Information

Credit hours: 6.5 CE credits Format: Live online, synchronous Level: Intermediate CE provider: Empathian

Assessment & Evaluation

Post-course evaluation: required for CE credit issuance

EMPATHIAN A Continuing Education Program for Licensed Mental Health Clinicians